New research

In this entry you should list any new materials you've found, new research you've done, tweaks made to to your product, etc.  In short, what have you been doing with your time?  And what do you see as your biggest challenges going forward?

On friday the 18th of Feburary, I went to Symmes elementary to meet with a special education teacher Mrs. Chuey. It was amazing talking with her about the students and seeing her work with some students too. We talked about me shadowing her for a full day and working with her students.

When we talking about my topic she said that she didn't really have any information on which worked better homeschooling or if you go to school, but we did nd up talking about when she just first started teaching and how it was alot different then than now because of a new law they made the inclustion act. This act is saything that the students need to be with the other students so they can learn and be around their peers. She said is it really difficult to include the "pull outs." The "pull outs" are a sevirely handicaped kids who can't learn what the other students are learning at all. In the olden days before the inclusive act they would teach the students life lessions to be more independent when they are older, but now they have a set coriculum that they have to teach, so they can't work on life lessons as much.

So, I was thinking that instead of the topic I had I was thinking about changing it to be about if the inclusion law if it was actually benifical or not. I got a book from Mrs. Chuey and I am planning to talk to Coach Strong soon and I will see if this topic is better.

Leaders in the Field

• Identify five (5) of the "thought leaders" in your area of research.  Who are the experts? To whom do the experts turn for guidance? Whose opinion or understanding carries substantial weight?

1.) Tim Shriver- He is the Chairman and CEO of Special Olympics, He is a high school teacher in Connecticut and a counselor for the University of Connecticut for disadvantaged youth. I envision their work being useful to me because he is a counselor and a teacher and both of those aspects will help be decide where child work better with special disabilities.

2.) Temple Grandin- She is an animal doctor and a proffessor at Colorado State University and also a cunsultant on livestock behavior. She is also a high functioning person with autisum an invented the hug machene it is desgned to calm hypersensitive people. I envision her work being helpful because she has irst hand expirence with autism and I can get a sense of how is it to have it.

3.) Dr. Margie B. Gillis- She is a sociology and elementary education undergrad at Connecticut College, also she received an Ed.D. in Special Education from the University of Louisville. She is a teacher and helps struggeling students in elementary school and middle school. She will help with my project because she is actually teaching the students and she will know what is the best work enviornment to be.

4.) Dr. Geraldine Dawson- She earned a Ph.D. in developmental and child clinical psychology from University of Washington and was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA. She was Assistant Professor at University of North Carolina and became Chief Science Officer at Autism Speaks and Research Professor of Psychiatry at UNC. She was Founding Director of the UW Autism Center, a multidisciplinary autism research and clinical program. Her scientific achievements include discovering that autism symptoms can be recognized during infancy, pioneering the use of event-related potentials to study brain dysfunction in autism. She will help out with my research by me looking up about autism and learning all about it to help communicate with students better.

5.)  Paula Kluth, Ph.D.- She is a consult, teacher, author, advocate and scholar. Paula is a former special education teacher who has served as a classroom eacher, consulting teacher, and inclusion facilitor. She is the author of many books that help with teaching autistic children and making them the ebst they can be. I think she will help be because she was a teacher and she will help in that aspect, and her books will help me to read. 

Friday Feb, 4

1.)   What's your subject?  Can you frame your subject in the format suggested by Craft of Research? 

My subject is Special Education because I want to find out how kids with special needs where they learn effect how much they learn.

2.)   Who knows a lot about your topic?  Who are you going to interview about this?

My lacrosse coach is a special education teacher at Sycamore high school and I texted her and we just need to find a date to interview, Also, a family friend is a special education teacher at an elementary school and I need to get an interview date with her.

3.)   You've just joined a peer group.  What is your role in helping this peer group work effectively?

My role is giving suggestions to the group, asking crucial questions to see if the topic the person is picking if it is a good one, and listening to what everyone has to say about their topic and mine.

4.)   Have you thought of a product?  What do you imagine Presentation Night will look like for you?

I have not really thought of a product, but if I were to think of one right now I would do a video showing kids with special needs learning in the different environments.

5.)   What else do you want to say about the class so far?

It will be a great opportunity doing this research project now, so in college it will be a lot less difficult.